| CD REVIEW Tank |
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Band : Tank This British act should be well-known to each and every Heavy Metal fan and beyond! I mean, they were formed as a trio in 1980 by former The Saints and The Damned bassist Algy Ward (whom also took on lead vocals; the trio completed by siblings Pete and Mark Brabbs on guitar and drums respectively) and as such immediately became part of the fledging NWoBHM scene (in spite of always being compared to Motörhead due to the fact that both bands had bassists singing and had a tendency to add a flavouring of Punk in their music), in fact, were catapulted one of the major players in that scene with the release of their 1982 debut Filth Hounds Of Hades on the Kamaflagelabel. The debut was however such a great album the band was never able to confirm their position in the scene with later releases (the Power Of The Hunter album, issued later the same year by the same label, possible came too fast for the band to make for a decent track-list). The following years would bring constant changes to the band. For starters they signed a better deal with Music For Nations, but the line-up would prove itself unstable. In 1983 the band added second guitarist Mick Tucker, and released their 3rd album This Means War. In 1984 the band released Honour & Blood and went through two line-up changes, each on the drum seat, with Brabbs first being replaced by Graeme Crallan (at the same time Pete Brabbs was replaced by second guitarist Cliff Evans...and the twosome of Tucker/ Evans would proove to be the only constant in the band from then on), and then by Michael Brettel. In 1985 the band cut an album titled Armour Plated, for which the band toured a couple of months. In 1986 the drum seat was taken over by Gary Taylor, in 1987 the band released their self-titled album through GWR, and in late 1988, early 1989 they disbanded! Ward resurrected the band (with drummer Steve Hopgood and the guitar twin team of Tucker/ Evans) in 1997, playing tour dates around Europe and Japan for a couple of years (a live album titled Te Return Of The Filth Hounds Live was recorded in '98 and released that same year through the Rising Sun Productions label), and a new studio album (with new drummer Bruce Bisland, whom took over in 2001) came with 2002's Still At War through the Zoom Club label, which had a year earlier released the War Of Attrition live album (material for which was recorded in 1981)! Tank toured for this album into 2003, but after that things quieted down again. Around 2006 Ward announced that he was putting the finishing touches to demos for an upcoming album (tentatively to be titled Sturmpanzer), the release date for which was henceforth listed as “TBA” on the band's website (www.) tankfilthhounds.net. In essence, the band had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, Evans had erected his on label Soundhouse Records, and in October 2007 he released the Tank album Live And Rare, following that up with the box set (8 CDs and a DVD) The Filth Hounds Of Hades – Dogs Of War 1981-2002 in November...leading to Polish label Metal Mind licensing the complete back catalog of the band for re-issue with bonus tracks in 2008. Suddenly fans of old and many younger fans were demanding live appearances of the band...but Ward had come to a point in his life where he wanted to retire from active music making, and concentrate in stead on writing his autobiography. So the guitar twin team of Tucker & Evans recruited new members Chris Dale (of Bruce Dickinson's band) on the bass and non less than Doogie White (of Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen repute, among others) on vocals...while thinking of their old bandmate Mark Brabbs to bash the skins once more. This line-up soon set out raiding venues all over the world, also taking in some festival appearances. But when (early this year) time came to start writing new material for a new studio album, Brabbs retired to leave his spot in the band to one Dave “Grav” Cavill. So now here it is: the new Tank album...and how does it compare to our memories of the band's music? Well, evidently White's somewhat higher pitched vocals put a different stamp on the whole, and with the opening passage of first track “Judgement Day” the twin guitars ooze off a very Iron Maiden-esque likeness, but overall the Tank machine stands as proudly as ever. Weirdly enough, neither the band's own website or their MySpace page (www. myspace.com/officialtank) post any songs off the new album (plenty of older songs though), so I guess you'll have to wait until an album page is opened on the trusted online sales websites (see iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, for instance) for you to discover some music (usually those websites post samples to àll album songs) of the new Tank. 88/100 Tony. |